on
her limbs, while pendent fiery tongues leap from the burning rafters,
and kiss her cheeks and brows where the black veins swell almost to
bursting; every muscle and nerve of her frame is strained with
convulsive efforts to escape, but the cords only sink into the bloating
flesh, and she lies there crisping like a log, and as powerless to
move. The dense, black smoke hangs over her like a pall, but prostrate
as she is, it cannot sink low enough to suffocate and end her agony. How
the bared bosom heaves! how the tortured limbs writhe, and the
blackening cuticle emits a nauseous steam! The black blood oozing from
her nostrils proclaims how terrible the inward struggle. The whole frame
bends and shrinks, and warps like a fragment of leather thrown into a
furnace--the flame has reached her vitals--at last, by God's mercy, she
is dead.

CHAPTER XX.

At dawn of the morning of the 21st of July, an officer in plain undress
was busily writing at a table in a plainly-furnished apartment of a
farm-house near Manassas. He was of middle age and medium size, with
dark complexion, bold, prominent features, and steady, piercing black
eyes. His manner and the respectful demeanor of several officers in
attendance, rather than any insignia of office which he wore, bespoke
him of high rank; and the earnest attention which he bestowed upon his
labor, together with the numerous orders, written and verbal, which he
delivered at intervals to members of his staff, denoted that an affair
of importance was in hand. Several horses, ready caparisoned, were held
by orderlies at the door-way, and each aid, as he received instructions,
mounted and dashed away at a gallop.

The building was upon a slight elevation of land, and along the plain
beneath could be seen the long rows of tents and the curling smoke of
camp-fires; while the hum of many voices in the distance, with here and
there a bugle-blast and the spirit-stirring roll of drums, denoted the
site of the Confederate army. The reveille had just sounded, and the din
of active preparation could be heard throughout the camp. Regiments were
forming, and troops of horse were marshalling in squadron, while others
were galloping here and there; while, through the ringing of sabres and
the strains of marshal music, the low rumbling of the heavy-wheeled
artillery was the most ominous sound.

An orderly entered the apartment where General Beauregard was writing,
and spoke with one of the m